Roof gutters have been in use for many years. Their principal function now, as it has been in the past, is to catch the rain water descending off of a roof surface and funnel it away from the foundation of the supporting house structure. The funneling of the water away from the house foundation prevents the water from closely compacting the surrounding soil, undermining the foundation itself, and eventually seeping into and through the foundation walls.
In the past, various gutter systems have been designed and implemented by manufacturers. The most often used gutter system is a permanent type system which employs long spiked nails to attach the gutter to the edge of a roof truss. The elongated gutter system is pitched downward to channel the falling water into a downward spout which, in turn, leads the falling water down and away from the house.
The permanent type gutter system has a number of inherent problems associated with it. It tends to damage the roof edge fascia where it is attached and it is difficult to replace when the gutters rot, become damaged, or are otherwise unusable. Most importantly, as is explained in detail below, it is very hard to clean and keep free of accumulated debris.
As is clear to any homeowner, all objects which fall onto the roof of a house eventually become channeled into and lodged in that house's gutter system. Such objects include leaves, tree limbs, toys, and various other airborne objects. As these objects accumulate in the gutter system, they eventually block the flow of water for which the gutters were originally designed. Many times the blocked gutters even conduct water into the house itself along the fascia of the roof eave.
This problem is exacerbated in the northern climates where every fall brings a cascade of thousands of falling leaves which accumulate in the gutters; once temperatures have fallen below freezing, the accumulated debris soaked with water freezes, overweights the gutter structure and makes the gutter system wholly useless for its purpose and even dangerous to persons passing underneath.
The only solution to the above gutter problem is the frequent cleaning and removal of collected debris. Since these gutters are generally irremovable, house owners must climb up to the level of the gutter itself. While balancing on a ladder, a home owner must reach into a tight opening and remove the accumulated debris. Once the owner has removed the debris, he or she generally must let it fall to the ground level where it must still be swept into piles and disposed of. It is clear why many house owners find the chore distasteful.
A number of improvements have been suggested to the often used permanent gutter system. For example, separable gutter and hanger arrangements have been designed which allow for the removal of the gutter from its position around the roof line. While this arrangement facilitates easier cleaning of the gutter, these systems have had problems of their own. They are generally in a single piece which is difficult to remove and, once removed, difficult to clean and reinstall. Also the removable gutter and hanger systems of the past have tended to come apart easily during violent weather.
Furthermore, previous removable gutter and hanger systems have been found to leak between their seams, and have, in other ways, been impractical due to their expense. For example, some systems which were slideably mounted tended to become obstructed by small twigs and other foreign matter while being susceptible to rust and freeze up during winter thereby making removal very onerous.